The Hamas terrorist organization’s second in command, Mousa Abu
Marzook, blasted the Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa Thursday over the latter’s
visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday. According to Marzook, the
mufti’s Jerusalem trip served only to legitimize Israel’s control
of “Palestine.”

Abu Marzook’s was only the latest in a series of furious responses to
the visit. And that Hamas condemnation, along with angry Egyptian
reactions to the mufti’s visit, revealed a deep disrespect for the
authority of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has
repeatedly highlighted the importance of visiting Jerusalem in past
months.

A flurry of condemnations have followed the visit of Gomaa, Egypt’s
top cleric, to Al-Aqsa, which is located on the Temple Mount in the
Old City of Jerusalem.

The question of visiting a Jerusalem under Israeli control has been
debated in the Arab world for years. But Gomaa’s visit comes in the
midst of a high-profile tug of war between Abbas — who recently
called on Muslims to flock to Jerusalem — and Egyptian-born cleric
Youssef Qaradawi, who banned such visits according to Islamic law.

Gomaa was invited to Jerusalem by the Jordanian royal family to
inaugurate an Islamic research center, AP reported, but took the
opportunity to pray in Islam’s third holiest mosque. He defined the
visit as “unofficial,” while his spokesman called it a “scientific,
not a political visit.” That, however, did not suffice for Arab
commentators Thursday.

“This is a dangerous visit in all respects as it serves the interest
of the false Israeli propaganda while claiming respect for freedom of
religion,” the lead editorial of Al-Quds Al-Arabi, an internationally
distributed Arabic daily that focuses on Palestinian issues,
said. “We do not understand how Mufti Gomaa will justify this
normalizing visit, which may encourage some to follow suit.”

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood also condemned Gomaa’s visit. Osama
Yassin, co-chairman of the movement’s Freedom and Justice party, said
the visit was “a real catastrophe and a blow to the national struggle
which succeeded in thwarting all attempts at normalization throughout
the past years.”

Another Muslim Brotherhood member said an apology by Gomaa would not
suffice to set things straight.

“Apology alone is not enough and he must be punished,” Sheikh Saad
Fiqi, a member of Egypt’s Ministry of Endowments, told the Muslim
Brotherhood website. “Normalization with the Zionist enemy is
forbidden because the land is still plundered.”

On April 4, Jordan’s Prince Hashem bin Hussein, half-brother of King
Abdullah, visited Al-Aqsa as part of a Jordanian delegation. A well-
known Yemeni preacher, Habib Al-Jafri, was also criticized for
visiting the mosque in April. In his visit on Wednesday, Gomaa was
escorted by another Jordanian royal, the King’s cousin prince Ghazi
bin Muhammad.

But while most Egyptian commentators viewed the pilgrimage as a form
of treason, Palestinian Authority newspapers celebrated it as a
political victory.

PA mouthpiece Al-Ayyam led its front page with coverage of the visit,
quoting the head of the Jerusalem endowment department, Azzam Khatib,
as saying the visit “supported Al-Aqsa and supported the residents of
Jerusalem.”

Gomaa stressed that he did not request Israel to grant him an entry
visa nor was his passport stamped, adding that the entire visit was
organized under the auspices of the Jordanian Royal Court, Al-Ayyam
reported.